Fact: President Nikos Christodoulides stressed that the newly appointed investigators must begin work immediately to uncover the truth about the death of Thanasis Nicolaou, who was found dead under Alassa bridge in September 2005.
– The opposition proceedings in the case brought against auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides by attorney-general George Savvides were filed by Odysseas’ team of lawyers.
– The opposition is based on two points: the application of the AG to the constitutional council is groundless and the AG does not have the authority to seek the sacking of an independent state official.
– Odysseas’ camp is applying pressure on the president to publicly side with him.
– The head of the anti-corruption authority demanded criminal charges against the drug squad chief, possibly linked to the Odysseas-Savvides clash.
– Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah urged Syrians to head for Cyprus and Europe to pressure Brussels to give Lebanon more funds for Syrian refugees.
– Parents were upset over the difficulty of questions in modern Greek exams for secondary school students.
– State hospital nursing unions are threatening industrial action if more nurses are not hired.
– The president announced the decision to appoint two criminal investigators before the cabinet approved it.
Police are awaiting information from Europol, Interpol, and Russian authorities to identify the sender of a threatening email sent to schools. The email was not specifically written for Cyprus and appears to have been translated online. The sender is from a foreign country, not Cyprus, and the email address may have been appropriated by a third party. The ultimate goal of the investigation is to pinpoint the sender.
A 26-year-old man was arrested by the Police in Limassol to assist in an ongoing investigation of serious bodily harm inflicted in February. The man was driving a vehicle with a 32-year-old co-driver when they were stopped by the police after a pursuit. The driver was found with heroin in his possession and was arrested for drug possession, while the co-driver was arrested for unlawful presence in Cyprus. Further investigations revealed a pending warrant for the driver’s arrest related to the February 2024 case of bodily harm. The Limassol CID is handling the investigation.
A 23-year-old driver was remanded in custody for four days after running over and killing a 77-year-old woman in the village of Kokkinotrimithia. The driver initially left the scene but later turned himself in to the police. The cause of the woman’s death will be determined at an autopsy, and the police investigation is ongoing.
Fact: A waiter stabbed a customer during a dispute over the customer’s bill at a restaurant in Karavas.
Former Fat Brands CEO Andrew Wiederhorn has been indicted for allegedly avoiding paying taxes through a scheme involving million in shareholder loans that were never repaid and reported as losses.
The Nicosia central prisons in Cyprus are overcrowded, with some accommodation blocks operating at more than 300 percent of their design capacity. Prisoners are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor and urinate in bottles due to lack of access to toilets at night. The report also highlighted instances of violence against prisoners, including staff slapping prisoners and using wooden sticks to intimidate them. Additionally, there were concerns raised about racist behavior, inter-prisoner violence, and the development of informal prisoner hierarchies within the prison.
The Legal Service questioned the timing of the anti-corruption authority’s announcement regarding former drug squad chief Michalis Katsounotos.
A fire broke out in Liopetri, in the Famagusta district, burning one hectare of unharvested crops and wild vegetation. It took three fire trucks and five firefighters 45 minutes to extinguish the blaze. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and arson has not been ruled out.